{"id":16877,"date":"2016-11-17T09:18:35","date_gmt":"2016-11-17T14:18:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.sites.unc.edu\/?p=16877"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:29:51","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:29:51","slug":"transformative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=16877","title":{"rendered":"One giant leap in the dark"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"(Illustration
(Illustration by Corina Cudebec)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A urethane-coated nylon boot kicks up a cloud of lunar dust as it steps into the gritty surface. A stark, obsidian sky looms overhead. In the distance, planet Earth rests above the horizon.<\/p>\n

Only 12 men have stepped foot on the moon \u2014 and each one returned to Earth changed. James Erwin (Apollo 15) formed a religious organization called the High Flight Foundation. Charles Duke (Apollo 16) started the Duke Ministry for Christ. Buzz Aldrin (Apollo 11) suffered from severe depression and alcoholism. Alan Bean (Apollo 12) became a full-time painter. \u201cI remember thinking in lunar orbit, that if I got back from this I was going to live my life differently,\u201d Bean said in an interview<\/a>. \u201cI was going to try to live it like I want to live it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lunar astronauts underwent what UNC philosopher L.A. Paul calls a \u201ctransformative experience\u201d \u2014 a life-changing, life-defining, never-before-explored experience. \u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s something that\u2019s so intense it makes you into a new kind of person,\u201d explains Paul, who explores the moonwalkers\u2019 tales in a new book she\u2019s writing called \u201cWho Will I Become?\u201d<\/p>\n

Major decisions \u2014 like deciding to become an astronaut \u2014 shape people\u2019s futures and affect the type of person they ultimately become. \u201cBut certain problems arise in decision-making,\u201d Paul says. \u201cA lot of times, when we make decisions, we project ourselves forward. We think: What would I like better? Who do I want to be? How do I want to live my life? <\/em>But you can\u2019t assess your response to the situation because you don\u2019t know what it\u2019s like to be in that situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having a child is one of the most common transformative experiences, according to Paul. And who you are prior to having kids can be very different from who you are after. \u201cBefore becoming a parent, you might think, I don\u2019t want to be one of those tired moms on the playground with vomit on her shoulder<\/em>,\u201d Paul says. \u201cBut once you become a parent and are one of the tired moms on the playground, you think: This is how I want to live my life. I love my child. This is so meaningful.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, having a child of her own is what led Paul to research these kinds of experiences \u2014 something she couldn\u2019t believe contemporary philosophers weren\u2019t talking about. So many things fall under this category, from attending college, to fighting in a war, to redefining your religious beliefs \u2014 \u201cthe kinds of things you have to experience to understand,\u201d she stresses.<\/p>\n

The unpredictable path<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the past four years, Paul\u2019s focused her research on decision theory \u2014 the concept of making decisions by assigning probabilities to various factors and numerical consequences to the outcome. Basically, it\u2019s a math equation for how we think.<\/p>\n

But decision theory struggles to capture the special role of how being immersed in an experience shapes who we are. It\u2019s too impersonal, Paul points out, and doesn\u2019t account for the tiny nuances that make us individuals. \u201cIt\u2019s like we\u2019re quasi-scientists broadly observing people and talking about how they\u2019re making choices,\u201d she says. \u201cI think it\u2019s important to change perspective and think about making decisions from within a specific person\u2019s point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s similar to the difference between watching a T.V. show and becoming immersed in it through virtual reality, according to Paul. The television screen creates a divide that separates you from the storyline \u2014 the quintessential \u201cfourth wall.\u201d But when that barrier is removed and the scene is taking place around you rather than in front of you, it\u2019s a completely different experience. \u201cYou no longer have that front-row-seat point-of-view,\u201d Paul explains, \u201cand that perspective changes you.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is why making life-changing decisions is not only difficult for the individual making them but for the researcher studying them. Who an individual will become after deciding to head down a particular path is too unpredictable. \u201cIf you can\u2019t assess your response to the situation because you don\u2019t know what it\u2019s like to be in that situation, you can\u2019t do that projection,\u201d Paul says. \u201cWe can tell ourselves a story, but those expectations are based in fiction. Maybe recognizing that<\/em> \u2014 that making big decisions is a leap in the dark \u2014 is the way we have to face those kinds of things.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Paul\u2019s 2015 book, \u201cTransformative Experience<\/a>,\u201d she argues that studying these decisions can\u2019t be solved with the science we have now, but her collaborators in psychology and cognitive science are trying to tackle that issue. In the meantime, she\u2019s looking to virtual reality as a substitute. \u201cI was just interviewed by the BBC<\/a> about some of my new work, which suggests that virtual reality experiences might help with the problem. So either I can actually attempt to have some of these experiences I\u2019m studying, or I can try to have them virtually in order to get a better idea of what they involve.\u201d<\/p>\n

In someone else\u2019s shoes <\/strong><\/p>\n

To better understand these experiences, Paul employs metaphysical themes such as being, knowing, substance, cause, identity, time, and the self \u2014 topics she unwraps in-depth in her abovementioned book. She\u2019s particularly fascinated by empathy \u2014 the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person \u2014 and the role it plays in trying to identify with people who are very different from ourselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cPretending like we can understand somebody else when we can\u2019t is a mistake,\u201d she shares. \u201cOften, we are more willing to tolerate someone\u2019s behavior if we can just grasp why they did it \u2014 if we can just understand enough about what it\u2019s like to be in their head. But there are principled reasons why I can\u2019t understand what it\u2019s like to have Alzheimer\u2019s or be of a different race or sexual orientation. If I haven\u2019t lived that life, then who am I to judge or blame them for the mistakes they make or the things they do?\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul also thinks it\u2019s a mistake to avoid our future selves. \u201cI think it\u2019s easy to gloss over how difficult, and even frightening, it can be to contemplate the possibility that who you will become is someone unrecognizable to you now,\u201d she stresses. \u201cGlossing this over isn\u2019t the answer. We need to explore them and pick them apart and come up with better models that recognize what we can and cannot do.\u201d<\/p>\n

L.A. Paul is the Eugene G. Falk Distinguished Professor and director of graduate admissions in the Department of Philosophy within the UNC College of Arts and Sciences.<\/em><\/p>\n

Story by Alyssa LaFaro, Endeavors magazine<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We can\u2019t know how a transformative experience \u2014 like walking on the moon \u2014 will change us until we make that first small step. UNC philosopher L.A. Paul explains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":16878,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,21],"tags":[24,1849,51,1850,36,37,38,39,40],"class_list":["post-16877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fine-arts-humanities","category-news","tag-carolina","tag-l-a-paul","tag-philosophy","tag-transformative-experiences","tag-unc","tag-unc-arts-and-sciences","tag-unc-college-of-arts-and-sciences","tag-unc-chapel-hill","tag-university-of-north-carolina-at-chapel-hill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16877"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47919,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16877\/revisions\/47919"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}